Airplanes could soon get a lot quieter. The Federal Aviation Administration has ruled in favor of a mandatory noise reduction for all aircraft. In the new year, all planes and jets will be made to operate seven decibels quieter than they do currently.
What’s interesting is that seven decibels is a small amount, it will probably be an imperceptible difference for the people who are on the plane. But at any given time there are 9,728 airplanes in the sky, so cutting down seven decibels on all of them would change the overall sound quality.
The efforts are a part of the Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) Program, which aims to reduce noise pollution from aviation. In addition to changing the way that the planes sound, they also aim to make changes to the noises surrounding airports as well.
